Game 27: Habs/Laffs

Tonight the Habs begin a 3 games in 4 nights stretch against the Maple Leafs, who blow into town fresh off of a 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. While you would hope Montreal can take advantage of a worn out opponent, Habs-Leafs history tells us to temper our expectations. This game could go any way the wind gusts. As of 11:30 there is no word on who will start in net tonight, or which injured players will be back in the line-up. Here’s hoping the Habs collect 2 points tonight as they face a tough test against Buffalo Thursday and then face Boston in the official 100th Anniversary of our beloved franchise.

*Edit: Gomez and D’Agostini will be back in the lineup tonight. Carey will make his 9th consecutive start.

Related Bookmarks Tags

There are currently no tags for this post.

Leave a Comment

8 Comments

#1 Senet1 says:
December 1, 2009 at 8:17 pm

Mats, one thing that makes me upset is we are having our 100 anniversary game and the scheduler did not have the sence to give us a fighting chance to play our best game. Really back to back games and 3 in 4 nights. Sounds like the NHL doesn’t care about marketing the game or the canadien fans. It is bad enough to be back to back games but 3 in 4 nights is just not a fair schedule especially under the circumstances.

#2 Senet1 says:
December 1, 2009 at 8:18 pm

I hope that Martin has the sense to put Halak in the net Thursday night, so Price will be fresh for Friday nights game.

#3 Senet1 says:
December 1, 2009 at 8:19 pm

Actually if we are going to move up in the standings we need at least 5 of 6 points out of these games. It is asking a lot out of a team full of injuries.

#4 Mats Naslund says:
December 2, 2009 at 1:18 pm

You’re right Senet1, I was going to comment on the schedule prior to the Sabres game, but it is an interesting lack of foresight that has resulted in the Habs having to play the night before the 100 Year anniversary which will undoubtedly have the longest pre-game ceremony in recorded history. One can only hope the team can keep it together in the first minutes of the Bruins game because they laid an absolute egg last night. You knew from the first goal that it was going to be a night where no matter what happened Montreal was going to struggle to score. I hate to say it but while I appreciated Gomez’s hustle it has been the same story with him for years – He’s got no finishing ability. New York had all kinds of problems scoring last season, and unfortunately that has been transfered to us. Whether he’s playing with Moen and MaxPac or Gionta and Cammy, Gomez has to find a way to produce when he’s given top line minutes. I’ll let him off easy for now as he needs time after an injury – but Montreal is running out of playoff leaway.

Chipchura has been sent to the ducks for a 4th rounder. I would caution those who think that Gainey is up to anything more – as Chipchura has been terrible and was benched for the final two periods of last night’s embarassment. It is extrememly sad to watch a first round centre walk for a fourth rounder though. Chipper went from being Captain of the National Junior team to career AHLer pretty quickly.

#5 Senet1 says:
December 2, 2009 at 6:26 pm

My initial reaction was that how can a fourth line centre who has a +10 rating not be worht more than a fourth round pick which will probably be something near the 100th pick of 2011.
I read something on one of the other site about offerin Gomez into waiver so see if someone would take him. How does that work with the cap space.

#6 Senet1 says:
December 2, 2009 at 8:04 pm

Sorry I was wrong about the +10 rating missed the – sign it was on the line above.

#7 Senet1 says:
December 3, 2009 at 12:20 am

Someone suggested that we would be better off to offer Gomez on waivers with the hopes that someone would pick up his salary, how does that work with the cap.

#8 Mats Naslund says:
December 3, 2009 at 10:45 am

If we were to put Gomez on waivers and he was picked up we would no longer be on the hook for his contract. The obvious down sides to this would be 1. We would lose our top centre. 2. We would have virtually given away Higgins, McDonaugh et al for nothing. 3. There are currently NO free agent centres capable of filling his shoes, and thus we would be forced to trade even more to acquire front line talent who may or may not be equal to the level of Gomez’s play. The reality is we are stuck with Gomez, and that may not be a bad thing if we can support him with other quality forwards. Right now its really difficult to know what exactly we have with injuries etc.

Leave a Comment

ShoutBox

Last Message 10 hours, 49 minutes ago

2 guests are online. Google is crawling the site.

goalie : Didn't get to see the game at all but it's great to see Pacs get a hat trick and fpor Cole to be + 3. When was the last time this team won three games in a row? Great victory -looks like they're giving 100% effort!
Senet1 : 4-2 win habs
Senet1 : Gomez scores, Yea!!!
goalie : As I said yesterday it will be interesting to see what our lame ass GM gets for players he ships out. Bourque is good and he'll help us but I still think we could have gotten more for him and for Halak when he was traded.
Avatar37 : round those picks occur (probably 3rd).
Avatar37 : An interesting article. If we slip to the 5th or 7th draft pick, a very interesting case could be made for drafting Galchenyuk. If we wind up with the second or third pick, I'm not sure who I'd draft, because clearly Yakupov is going to be drafted first overall. Our second round pick also becomes interesting, I know I'd take Vasilevski if he were still available. It will also be interesting to see if we can turn some of our veteran players (Moen, Gill, Campoli) into draft picks, and what
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : That is why PG should have waited on trading Cammalleri. Right now, there is a high demand for a top 6 forward, we could have gotten much more than Bourque in return. That isn't a knock against Bourque, but a knock against a knee-jerk reaction trade that didn't maximize our return on a top asset.
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : chips fall where they may. After all, the only difference between finishing 17th and 29th is how good a pick you get in the draft.
Avatar37 : We currently sit in 26th place in the league. We are 15 points ahead of Columbus, it's safe to bet at this point they will place last. We are, however, only 4 points ahead of Edmonton so it's still wide open as to who is going to finish second last. I still think that it's time to sit the veterans, play the youth, let them get experience, and regroup for next year. I'm not suggesting deliberately tanking like the Penguins, but give all our young players lots of playing time and let the c
Avatar37 : goalie - If it were not for the play of Cammalleri, we would never have made it out of round 1. Cammalleri played as big a part, if not bigger, than Halak did. Sure, Halak played well, but remember the team collapsed in front of him, making his job much easier. We had lots of blocked shots and the ones that got through were typically from the outside.
Senet1 : Goalie you are absolutely right, of course the one thing we had the two previous years that won the games that we are losing this year was our power play. If you look at say 10 games that we should have won had we had a similar power play, again we would not be having these conversations. When your PP goes from first to last in the league that is a lot of goals.How many games have we lost this year by one goal. Again poor management who did not prepare for Markov's possible absence.
goalie : I'll put it another way.... we need more players who are willing to get their noses dirty.
goalie : Two years ago when our goaltending stole series adn our players suddenly scored the coaches / GM believed that that was our true team . Well time has proven that was not. Though I was very glad to see the Habs knock off some very good teams we were very fortunate. And fortunate that spring was spelled HALAK!
goalie : The wrst mistake management could possibly make I believe is to say, we played well some games and we believe the team can play to that level more often in the future. This team CANNOT adnb DOES NOT play to a high enough level. Please do not kid yourself mamngement. hat is partially why we're in the lace we are.
goalie : Senet is correct when he says that if we had more games with a better efort this year we'd likely be in the playoffs. It has been very inconsistent effort but much more than that. We lack big, tough playing and finishing. Never mind fighting for a moment. We did not compete for the pucks nor along the boards nor in front of both nets enough this year. Thus we are in 29th. If the coaching staff doesn't see that then they shouldn't be there.
Senet1 : Surely Molson is not going to keep him as the GM?
Senet1 : when he knows he will be fired at the end of the season. Nothing really makes since in this whole process.
Senet1 : I am not sue why PG has not been fired by now. They could be waiting for another GM to come available at season end, but why would you not set up a committee to manage the team in the short run until a new GM can be named. There is no since in chaning coaches because whoever the GM is he will want to name his own coach. Gainey and a committe of other executives can manage the team through to the trading deadline and onward. What motivation does PG have to making any worthwhile trades when he is
Senet1 : I am too mch of a competitor to want my team to tank to. However, If these players played like they ae cabable of playing all year we would not be having this discussion right now, we woud be talking about the playoffs and who we would rather meet in the first round.
rocky : Exactly, and Senet nails it when he says we have not had an elite top 5 in the nhl player since lafleur.
goalie : I too want the Habs to get the best possible draft this June. We all need SOME hope!
rocky : He is persona non grata in habville, and a ghost in every sense of the term.
goalie : It remains a miracle how we have heard from our mighty GM twice since Christmas - the trades involving Spacek and Cammy and those comments were extremely brief. PG just does not cut it in my world. Part of a GMs job is to go public from time to time. PG never does that in fact he's a ghost GM!
rocky : Its true, there is no honor in that. These guys have only known the ethic of giving it all to win every night. I do not want them to "tank", and they will never do that anyway. I do want them to lose though, as awful as it sounds.
goalie : Roicky as a good point. We all want the Habs to get a really good draft pick. However, players, coaches etc. also have a keen desire to compete and win. That's why they're playing at the pro level. Thus we can only hope that the team plays some good games and let the chips fall where they may. After the disasterous season we've had let's not lower ourselves adn get involved in any dscussions about 'tanking' games.
rocky : So long.
Senet1 : Good discussion rocky, I have to step out for an hour, but may be back later.
Senet1 : The only way this team comes back to a team with long term potential is to draft a game breaker. Even all the other bad teams have a Stamkos or a player like him. He have some good player so what we need is a Malkin that we can count on 80% of the time to win a game for us.
rocky : I mean winning will only do them harm that is.
rocky : It really hurts because my reflexes make me want to cheer like mad, but it will only hurt the team now.
Senet1 : Yes I have mixed feeling when watching the game. Last night I say here we go again. with our record of shoot losses I did not expect to win that one. Yet I wanted to win real bad?????
rocky : God, so horrible to sit and hope for losses, but here we are.
Senet1 : Our problem is we play one out of every 4 games good and therefore, we play well enough to stay on the borderline of a top five pick. If we win three or four in a row we could take ourselves right out of the running.